This invention relates to a computer implemented method for generating a two dimensional drawing for a form board used to assemble a wire harness.
Harnesses are collections of wires that are bundled together. These wire harnesses are used in a variety of products to electrically interconnect components of the product, such as an aircraft engine, an automobile, or a computer cabinet. In a car, for example, a harness (or a plurality of harnesses) incorporates the wiring including connections to the dash board, head lights, battery, tail lights, alternator, starter, auto alarm, and any other electrical components. Some of the sections of the harness comprise single wires, and other sections comprise bundles of wires. Most of the wires terminate with a connector or adaptor which is to be coupled to an electrical component.
Typically, harnesses are pre-assembled in a generally two dimensional manner in which all the wires are laid out flat on a form board. The form board is a flat board with pegs, and is manually produced from a completed prototype of the product. The pegs are positioned so that wires run along the board, kept in position by the pegs. A designer removes the harness from the prototype and places them on the form board. The designer manually flattens the three dimensional harness to a two dimensional arrangement, and puts the pegs in the appropriate places. The designer's goal is generally to flatten the harness on a form board so that no two branches of the harness overlap. From this layout, a two dimensional design for a master form board is made. Other harnesses are assembled from the master form board by laying out wires and wire bundles on top of the master form board to create the finished harness in flattened form, and then mounting the flattened harness and installing it on the actual product of which it is a part.
By generating a two dimensional design, a harness can be assembled independent of the product. Consequently, the harness can be contracted to businesses which specialize in harnesses and replacement harnesses can be produced. Assembling a harness in three dimensions would be difficult.
Many products having wire harnesses are designed with computer aided design (CAD). According to a typical method for producing a harness, a product is initially designed with CAD, and a physical prototype, including wiring, is built from the design. The harness is manually removed from the prototype and manually flattened to produce a layout design for assembling future harnesses. It would be beneficial to be able to use CAD techniques to allow a designer to directly produce a two dimensional harness design from a three dimensional model.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide an improved method for manufacturing a harness.
It is another object of the present invention to manufacture a harness without having to build a prototype and manually produce a harness.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a harness that takes into account the concerns of a harness manufacturer.